Why we are yet to pay 12,000 N-Power volunteers — FG

The Federal Government on Monday in Abuja admitted that about 12,000 N-Power beneficiaries are yet to be paid their three- month stipends.

The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar Farouq confirmed this at the media briefing of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19.

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It would be recalled that the federal government recently announced that it would be disengaging 500,000 beneficiaries of the scheme who were enrolled between 2016 and 2018.

The minister attributed the delay in the payment of the 12,000 volunteers to administrative issues, saying her ministry was working with the office of the Account General to resolve it.

“As far as the ministry is concerned, we have paid N-Power beneficiaries that have been verified and recommended for payment. We have 500,000 N-Power volunteers.

“Those who are claiming that they have not been paid, we are looking into these issues with the Office of the Account General of the Federation.

“We have had issues around migrating from the platform that we used to operate to the Government Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS) platform.

“So, these are the administrative issues that have hindered the payment of some of the volunteers.”

“There are about 12,000 of them based on our record and as I am speaking with you, the permanent secretary of the ministry is in the office of the accountant general to sort out these issues and once we get the report, we will make it available to all.”